Azores business groups seek support for new low-cost air routes
Azores GuideCommerce, hotel and local accommodation associations say new route support and stronger tourism promotion are needed as the Azores faces its first winter without Ryanair.
Business associations representing commerce, hotels and local accommodation in the Azores have called for support for air routes and for attracting low-cost airlines. At a press conference reviewing the regional tourism sector six months after their joint memorandum, they asked Turismo de Portugal to help support the contracting of new routes to the Azores.
According to Correio dos Açores, Gualter Couto estimated overall losses from Ryanair's departure at between €140 million and €160 million. He said 123,000 fewer passengers had been recorded this year, with between 103,000 and 104,000 directly associated with the airline's departure, and warned of double-digit declines during the first winter without Ryanair in the Azores.
The associations said the destination had suffered eleven consecutive months of lost competitiveness in its main economic sector. Couto called for a change in tourism promotion strategy, more resources for VisitAzores, and concrete targets and accountability for the route attraction fund under review in Brussels. João Pinheiro called for urgent investment in tourism promotion and said local accommodation had been the accommodation type most harmed by the current situation.
This site previously reported that the Azores planned a winter tourism campaign for the domestic market.
Update — 2026-10-02
Gualter Couto said that, in previous years, execution of tourism-promotion funds had remained only slightly above 50%, despite reduced budgets. He also described the coming season as the first winter in a decade without low-cost airlines in the Azores.
Update — 2026-10-23
In an urgent debate on tourism policy in the Legislative Assembly in Horta, Regional Secretary for Tourism Berta Cabral rejected alarmist readings of the sector. She said total hotel revenue rose 6.9% year on year between April and August, after Ryanair left the region, and that the proposed Regional Annual Plan for 2027 includes 17.2 million euros for tourism promotion.
Cabral said the Azores were served by 16 airlines on 30 routes in the 2026 IATA summer season. According to Diário dos Açores, she said a Transavia route between Brussels and Ponta Delgada and a United Airlines route between Newark and Terceira are already confirmed for 2027, and that the rules for the Azores Air Route Development Fund have been sent to the European Commission for review under state aid rules.
Sources
Azores Guide
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